


4 Times Therese Saved the World (And One Time She Didn't)

by shipperella



Category: I Ship It - Fandom
Genre: 5 Times, Alternate Universe, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Love/Hate, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2020-01-24 15:01:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18573880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shipperella/pseuds/shipperella
Summary: Time is running out.





	4 Times Therese Saved the World (And One Time She Didn't)

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I am a lowly fanfiction writer. Marina Hunter owns the magical world of Superstition. I own the spaces inbetween.
> 
> Author's Note: This takes place in a different universe from my last fic. Reviews fill my heart with joy.

 

\--

**_\+ one_ **

The first time she walks into the old church, she thinks of him. Saxon. He’s tall, dark, and nothing she wants right now. She knows he’s a bad idea, a walking cliche that belongs in a pop song or in the pages of one of her aunt’s old romance novels - not here, not in Salem Falls, not in the few corners of her mind that haven’t yet been swept away by grief.

So of course he appears. It’s almost like he senses it - she wonders if he can hear her thoughts.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he says. He’s here, but she doesn’t point that out.

“Father Warren -“

“- Isn’t someone you can trust,” he finishes.

Therese knows that already - she knows that no one in this town can be trusted. Salem Falls has too many secrets, they whisper in the breezey night air, in the crunching leaves beneath her feet, the quiet electric buzz of the fluorescent lamps outside the Old Tavern.

And that’s when it happens - the ground caves beneath her. The gaping Hellmouth - it’s here, it’s been here all along, waiting for her, waiting to pull her down below. She’s going to die, and the last thing she’s going to see is Saxon’s eyes - fixed on hers, watching the light vanish from them, watching as her world ends -

Except it doesn’t. The perks of the peculiar blood coursing through her veins - whispering the secrets of the witches of Salem Falls, every generation, all the way back to _her_ , the original, the Therese who came first. Her blood saves her, and the world doesn’t fall into the gaping chasm of the Hellmouth beneath the Old Church of Salem Falls. He isn’t there when she finds out she’s still alive, still of this realm - he’s nowhere to be found. And she feels his absence more than anything else she’s ever known.

One week later, she runs into Saxon while picking up kitten formula for Miss Millie’s new litter.

“I didn’t expect they’d survive the week,” he says lightly.

“They’re tougher than you’d think,” she tells him.

\--

**_\+ two_ **

It’s graduation day. Adam is telling her something - he’s happy, he’s here with her, they’re right where they’re supposed to be. Yes, she tells him. I’m happy too. I belong here too, right next to you.

And that’s when she sees it - the flaming dart of something powerful - something deadly and fatal, coming towards them. It’s going to kill them all, and she knew it was coming and told herself it wasn’t true.

“It’s my fault,” she says.

“No,” Adam squeezes her hand. And as she stares at his hand in hers, she can’t help but wonder - is she really going to die like this? It’s not the first time she’s faced death, not by a long shot - but it’s the first time it’s felt this safe. Like maybe she could stay here while the world burns, her hand in his, and if she dies - at least they’re together.

She hates it. She hates him a little for it too, for making her feel like maybe it would be okay to give up the fight, give herself up to the greater mystery of the ether.

But the world doesn’t end. Her misfired protection spell saves them - it’s a fluke, and she doesn’t think this counts as saving the world, not really. But that’s when her Aunt Marissa starts keeping track, as a joke.

“It’s like a loyalty program,” she says. “Save the world four times, get the fifth one free.”

\--

**_\+ three_ **

“Do it,” he says. “I dare you.”

Therese stares at Saxon, and she shakes her head.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you? For me to throw away everything I’ve worked so hard for. Over nothing.”

“Not nothing,” he says, and pauses. “Me.”

The air is electric, the way it is in June when the lightning bugs throw their parties, the way it is when the summer storms are brewing faster than Father Warren’s hangover potions.

“You know you want to. You’re just too afraid.”

Therese knows Saxon is right. She hates that he’s right. So she slaps him. And so he kisses her.

And she knows suddenly just what the end of the world tastes like - whiskey and smoke, and something else, something dark and secret waiting for her to fall, like the fallen angel holding her like she’s the only port in the storm.

They separate - and she realizes he’s pressed the cursed dagger in her hands.

“Do it,” he repeats. He takes her hand and guides the dagger over his heart. “While you still hate me more than you love Adam, it’ll be easier.”

She could end it all now, while he’s still linked to the demon Pax - kill two fallen angels with one cursed dagger, free them both of this mortal jail. But Adam would never forgive her. And she could never do that to Adam.

Or to herself, some secret corner of her soul sings. Admit it, that traitorous part of her heart crows, admit it.

Admit she’d miss him, this version of Saxon that’s alive at the same time as her, this version of the man who’s lived over a hundred lifetimes, who won’t let go of a younger brother’s long forgotten promise.

So she kisses him instead. She kisses him until she’s drunk on his scent, until she can taste his darkness, until she feels the tendrils of his pain seep into her soul. She kisses him greedily, like she could kill him by devouring him, like she might actually let the world end rather than stop -

“This never happened,” she tells him. He looks at her through heavy-lidded eyes, not understanding.

And then she pushes the dagger into his heart.

His eyes widen in surprise - he falls back. The shadow of the demon slips from the wound, and a whirlpool opens in the ground, swallowing Saxon whole, into another dimension.

She’s saved the world. Again. But this time, it feels empty.

\--

**_\+ four_ **

Adam is in pain, and it’s because of her. She knows he’s too good, too kind, too sweet to tell her - but it’s there. He blames her still, he doesn’t think saving the world was a worthwhile trade for Saxon’s life, even if Saxon found his way back through a time portal.

He resents her, his soul mate, the girl who means everything to him. And she resents him too, for asking her to be everything, for taking up so much space in her heart that she isn’t sure anymore where he begins and she ends.

“The world might be ending,” he tells her.

“It might be Monday,” she answers, cracking a smile.

Adam doesn’t smile back. He hasn’t smiled back in a while, she can’t remember what his smiles look like anymore. But she remembers a devilish smirk, on a face of ivory and darkness. Saxon’s.

And she thinks - it’s time to let go. Let go of her soul mate, release him before she hates him.

And she thinks - maybe it’s time to forgive Saxon. Before it’s too late, before the fires of hell consume his soul in its entirety.

But first she has to save the world.

\--

**_\+ and one time she didn’t_ **

It’s a Sunday night, and the world might end tomorrow.

“If I die tomorrow, would you miss me?” Saxon peers down at her, his mouth twisted in a careless smirk.

But his eyes are saying something else, something she can’t quite catch in the firelight.

“If you died tomorrow, I’d throw a party,” she answers.

Saxon’s eyes flit to hers, a shade of bitterness tinged in them. Then - he chuckles, as if at a private joke, and leans down towards her.

“What are you doing?” she backs up.

He lowers his head, slowly, deliberately. “Tell me to stop.”

She watches him come closer, closer, closer, and she knows she couldn’t will him to stop if the fate of the world depended on it.

And then he kisses her. It’s a slow, soft kind of dangerous. And it whispers something else to her - “Stay with me. Don’t die. Feel something. Feel anything. Fight.”

She pulls away suddenly, breathing harshly. He lowers his forehead to hers.

“I wish you could remember this.”

She realizes just then, what his eyes are trying to tell her - Goodbye.

Too late - she tries to tell him he doesn’t have to do this, that it’s not his burden to save the world, to save Salem Falls, it’s hers, that she wouldn’t trade her life for his, not now, not after all they’ve been through, but there isn’t enough time - time is running out, it’s fleeing the scene and she can’t hold on to anything but him.

“I will,” she lies.

“Liar,” he whispers with a kiss.

And then her world fades to darkness.

\--

_This has been a fanfic bonus tie-in to[the new season of I SHIP IT, now streaming on the CW Seed until Wednesday 4/24 **here**](https://go.cwseed.com/isic). If you missed I SHIP IT during its initial streaming sneak preview, you can catch it later this year on the CW!_


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